06-01-06It has now rained almost solidly, for 4 days in a trot. Apparently this is common enough here, they get about 4 meters a year. (The locals are so used to it just dander around in woolly jumpers and t-shirts as if it's a dry day.) And people joke about Ireland....I don't mind a little bad weather if the fishing is good, but it's been pissing down and the fishing is lousy. Last night I went to a spot where there was supposed to be a run of Chinook salmon recently. Word must have got out.

One of the things that the Chileans boast about is that you can fish in complete solitude here. Not true. I was fishing away all happy with myself because I'd been able to cast to a spot that looked very likely. Then this huge creature from the deep appeared right where I was casting. It was either a sea lion or an elephant seal, whichever of them is about 4 or 5 meters long and has a head the size of an elephants. He just kept patrolling slowly upanddown, giving me the evil eye as if to say that he was there first! I reckoned he was more likely to catch a fish than me so I packed it in. Even if I did catch a salmon what were my chances of landing it with Moby Dick swimming about.

I suppose every cloud has a lining. In this case, the non-stop rain beating down on the roof of my room made has made me curl up under the blankets and get some of the best sleepins I've had in months.